1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus comprising two feeding means and feeding paths.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus will be explained with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a cross sectional view of the conventional image forming apparatus, and FIG. 11 is an enlarged view of a merge portion A of a first feeding path and a second feeding path in FIG. 10. According to the conventional image forming apparatus, among recording sheets piled on a first feeding port 3 on the image forming apparatus main body 1 side, only the uppermost part recording sheet is separated by a first feeding unit 4 so as to pass through a first feeding path 7 and the lower surface of a feed guide 9, and thereby being fed to an image forming portion 5. The recording sheet fed to the image forming portion 5 has an image transferred onto the paper surface of the recording sheet by the image forming portion 5, and the image fixed by a fixing unit 6 so as to be discharged to the outside of the image forming apparatus main body 1. Moreover, the recording sheet fed from an option unit 2 passes through a second feeding path 8 so as to be merged with the first feeding path 7 of the main body immediately before the image forming portion 5 of the image forming apparatus. The recording sheet has an image transferred onto the paper surface thereof by the image forming portion 6, and the image is fixed by the fixing unit 6 so as to be discharged to the outside of the image forming apparatus main body 1 in the same manner.
As shown in FIG. 11, at the merge portion A of the first feeding path 7 and the second feeding path 8, the sheet passing through the first feeding path 7 is fed to the image forming portion 5 on the lower surface of the feed guide 9 without contacting with the lower surface of the feed guide 9, and the recording sheet passing through the second feeding path 8 is fed with the recording sheet top end feed direction switched to the image forming portion 5 direction by the feed guide 9.
However, according to the above-mentioned conventional image forming apparatus, since a fixed type feed guide member is disposed at the merge portion of the second feeding path and the first feeding path, and thus in the case where the recording sheet fed from the first feeding port or the second feeding port is jammed, a problem is involved in that the jammed recording sheet is cut off by the feed guide at the time of the jamming process.
Moreover, a problem is involved in that a paper hopping sound is generated due to the crash of the rear end of the recording sheet with the feed guide at the moment of passing by the top part of the merge portion at the time when the rear end of the recording sheet fed from the second feeding path passes through the merge portion of the first feeding path and the second feeding path.